Paris, France — Fine Arts Paris La Biennale, the elegant art and antique fair, drew to a close last November 13th after welcoming 17,000 art collectors, connaisseurs, decorators, museum curators, art lovers and the public at large to visit stands presented by 86 galleries from France and abroad. One of the most intriguing and stunning objects on display was a 19th century aquarium replete with golden dragons and turtles presented by the Parisian Galerie Steinitz.

A masterpiece of Japonisme or the influence of Japanese art and design in Western Europe in the 19th century, it was designed by Edouard Lièvre and fashioned in the Parisian workshops of Ferdinand Barbedienne. Its owner was the Baltimore-born Alice Tahl, known as Madame de Lancey, the celebrated mistress of the banker Nissim de Camondo. She arrived in Paris circa 1875. It adorned her Parisian apartment which was luxuriously decorated in the Japonisme style of the time. The apartment also welcomed the tout Paris or the Cafe Society of the latter half of the 19th century.

The sphere-shaped aquarium in smoked glass is decorated with bambou branches upon which myriad turtles both small and large sit with the sphere sitting on a pedestal decorated with dragons all standing on three finely engraved elephant heads. On the cardinal points of the object identical mounts set in a square decor of bamboo is a disk of the ideogram shou, the Chinese symbol of longevity, like the turtle.
The Galerie Steinitz’s Chinoiserie display won the best stand prize at Fine Arts Paris La Biennale. The gallery is a short walk from the Place de la Concorde.
©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette
Galerie Steinitz
6 Rue Royale, 75008 Paris
+33 (0) 56 43 66 70
https://steinitz.fr/
https://fineartsparislabiennale.com/en/